DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 13, 20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. The 35 USC 112 rejection has been withdrawn due to the rejected claims 7-8 and 19 being cancelled by the amendment filed 08/08/2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 13, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by You et al (WO 2017,049,425; hereinafter You) in view of Shih et al (US 2021/0,211,994; hereinafter Shih).
Regarding claims 1, 13, and 20, You disclose a terminal (900) and a power headroom report PHR reporting method applied to a terminal (900), comprising an memory (920), an processor (910), and an non-transitory readable storage medium (storage medium), wherein the readable storage medium stores a program or instructions, and the program or instructions, when being executed by a processor (910), a program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein when the program is executed by the processor (pg. 30, lines 7-16, pg. 31, lines 3-29), the processor (910) is configured to:
trigger a PHR in a case that a first condition is satisfied wherein a cell group is resumed, wherein the cell group comprises a secondary cell (page 12, lines 6-12; condition 4, any secondary cell (Scell) is activated with an uplink; pg. 30, lines 7-12).
You do not explicitly disclose wherein the first condition further comprises at least one of the following: a first radio resource control RRC message has been received, wherein the first RRC message is used to indicate resuming the cell group; a second RRC message has been received, wherein the second RRC message is used to indicate adding or configuring the cell group to a non-suspended state. In the same field of endeavor, Shih disclose the first condition further comprises at least one of the following: a first radio resource control RRC message has been received, wherein the first RRC message is used to indicate resuming the cell group; a second RRC message has been received, wherein the second RRC message is used to indicate adding or configuring the cell group to a non-suspended state (in one embodiment, the UE triggers a second PHR when the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED state, where the UE may enter RRC_CONNECTED state in response to receiving the RRC Resume message, the UE triggers the PHR in response to configuration of PHR functionality, e.g. the UE triggers the PHR in response to configuration of the PHR functionality by one or more upper layers, such as RRC; in a RRC Resume procedure in NR, the UE may initially apply a MAC Cell Group configuration comprising PHR-Configuration which indicates a second default timer length for a second timer related to a PHR procedure where the UE triggers the PHR in response to configuration of PHR functionality by the RRC; paras. [0380], [0412], [0474], [0443]-[0447], [0509], [0531], [0532]; Fig. 5). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to do so in order to provide high data throughput to realize in demand communication of large amount of data to and from mobile communication devices in wireless communication networks (Shih; ¶ [0002]).
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claims 6, 12, 18, and 21-23 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Regarding claim 6 and 22, You disclose the method and non-transitory readable storage medium according to claim 1 and 20 respectively, wherein the cited prior art fails to further disclose or fairly suggest the first condition further comprises at least one of the following: a first MAC control element CE has been received, wherein the MAC CE is used to indicate resuming the cell group; a second MAC CE has been received, wherein the second MAC CE is used to indicate switching the SpCell and the SCell in the cell group to the activated state; first downlink control information DCI has been received, wherein the first DCI is used to indicate resuming the cell group; second DCI has been received, wherein the second DCI is used to indicate switching the SpCell and the SCell in the cell group to the non-dormant BWP; and a suspend timer expires, wherein the suspend timer is used for triggering resumption of the cell group.
Regarding claim 12, 21, and 23, You disclose the method, terminal, and non-transitory readable storage medium according to claim 1, 13, and 20 respectively, wherein the cited prior art fails to further disclose or fairly suggest the PHR comprises PHRs of all serving cells that are in the activated state, wherein a PHR variation of the serving cell in the activated state is greater than or equal to a first preset value, and a reference value of the PHR variation is a PHR of the serving cell that is sent last time.
Regarding claim 18, You disclose the terminal according to claim 13, wherein the first condition further comprises at least one of the following: a first media access control (MAC) control element (CE) has been received, wherein the MAC CE is used to indicate resuming the cell group; a second MAC CE has been received, wherein the second MAC CE is used to indicate switching a special cell (SpCell) and a secondary cell (SCell) in the cell group to an activated state; first downlink control information (DCI) has been received, wherein the first DCI is used to indicate resuming the cell group; second DCI has been received, wherein the second DCI is used to indicate switching the SpCell and the SCell in the cell group to the non-dormant bandwidth part (BWP); and a suspend timer expires, wherein the suspend timer is used for triggering resumption of the cell group.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LANA N LE whose telephone number is (571) 272-7891. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30am-4:30pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wesley Kim, can be reached at (571) 272-7867. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/LANA N LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2648